"It's hard to find great stories out there. This was a great story." That's screenplay writer Eric Warren Singertalking about the real-life scandal that inspired David O. Russell's new movie "American Hustle."

Singer, who wrote the corrupt-banking drama "The International" before co-writing "American Hustle" with Russell, says he happened onto the saga several years ago. "I was on a plane sitting next to this attorney and he started talking about some peripheral connection he had (with the case). The initial attraction was when I learned about Mel and his role in the ABSCAM sting. Then I pulled back the veneer and actually spoke to Mel and learned about the human drama of what happened, which was so textured and rich and funny and bizarre. Here was this sort of stranger-than-fiction story that had not been told before."

"American Hustle" co-stars Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrenceand Jeremy Renneras characters leading lives of not-so-quiet desperation. "The common denominator for all these characters is that what's motivating them isn't greed, it isn't money," Singer says. "It's that they're fighting for their lives. David explores this idea of how we all hustle ourselves, in one way or another, to get where we need to go."

Tale of a would-be basketball star

Lenny Cookewas ranked the nation's best high school basketball player in 2001, when filmmaker Adam Shopkorndecided to document the Brooklyn athlete's graduation to the big leagues.

"I wanted to show someone going from high school into the NBA and making a ton of money," Shopkorn says, "to see how they acclimated themselves."

But that didn't happen. Instead, Cooke lost his confidence after getting shut down at basketball camp by the then-unknown LeBron James.

"Lenny Cooke," directed by Joshua and Ben Safdie, catches up with Cooke in Virginia, after he's gained 100 pounds, along with wry perspective on why his career went south.

"Not everyone is disciplined enough to be a pro athlete," producer Shopkorn notes. "You have to love the game."

Showing a rare Christmas film noir from 1961

Eighty-six-year-old director Allen Baronhosts a Film Noir Foundation screening Wednesday at the Roxie of his 1961 thriller "Blast of Silence." It's one of the rare black-and-white crime dramas set against a holiday backdrop. "I loved the contrast of Christmas and a killer," says Barron, who wrote, directed and starred in the movie.

He worked outside the studio system to shoot his bleak hit-man movie on a budget of $21,000. To keep costs down, he used leftover ends of film, recruited his sisters as extras and shot on New York City streets without permits.

A taxi driver and comic book artist by training, Baron also performed all the stunts himself. "For the final scene," he recalls, "I jumped into Jamaica Bay. It was wintertime. Snow had just stopped falling, so I wore a light rubber suit underneath my clothes. We had two little cameras, one take, and I went right into the water, which was ice cold. Fortunately I didn't hit anything."

"Blast of Silence" served as Baron's industry calling card, and he went on to direct episodes of "Charlie's Angels," "MASH" and other TV shows. Meanwhile, "Blast of Silence" picked up a following in Europe and Japan. In 2007, the Criterion Collection reissued "Blast of Silence" on DVD.

Baron says, "Everything in 'Blast of Silence' is instinctive. I had never acted in a film before and I remember looking at a mirror and saying, 'You'll either be the biggest jerk in the world, or this is going to work.' "

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"Blast of Silence" will screen with 1947 thriller "Christmas Eve" in the Noir City Xmas double bill. {sbox}

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